An ethical mobile operating system, /e/ – Trick or Treat?

Previously known as eelo, /e/ is an ‘ethical’ operating system for mobile phones. Leading the project is Gaël Duval who is also the creator of Mandrake Linux. Is it a new OS? Well not exactly, it is a forked version of Lineage OS stripped of Google apps, with a focus on privacy and considered as an ethical OS.

What’s so good about /e/?

The good thing here is that this is a unique effort for an ethical OS. Something different from the data collection of Android or the expensive devices by Apple. With a functional ROM including all functionalities, Duval seems to be pretty serious about this. An OS that respects user privacy does sound like a very nice thing.

However, as pointed out by people on Reddit, this is what Cyanogen was in the beginning. The ethical OS /e/ is not actually a new OS from scratch. Who has the time or funding for that today? You have /e/ services instead of Google services, but ummm can you trust them?

Is /e/ a trick… or a treat?

We have mixed feelings about this one, it is a commendable effort, the idea is right. But with the recent privacy debates everywhere trusting a new OS is tricky. We’ll reserve judgement till it is out of beta and has a name that you can Google search for.

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